~ View the movie Fresh online at the link below until April 30th. Fresh is a wonderful movie about the systems of food production and the changes that are occurring to bring us into a closer relationship with our food – how it is grown, sourced and enjoyed! Highly recommended http://bit.ly/AbfNsm
~The paper towel challenge! We have not given you that in a few months! Make a commitment to go a day, or a week, or a month, without paper towel. Use washable cotton rags and towels in place of paper. Remember, paper towel is loaded with chemicals! Don’t expose yourself, your food and our world, to this single use toxic load!
~When using the oven, endeavor to bake or roast more than one item at a time, to maximize the heat that is created in the oven. For example, if you are going to bake, during the warming or cooling of the oven put a pan of nuts into the oven to gently dry roast, or dry out kale or dulse!
mothering Mother Blog
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What does mothering Mother® nurturing Nature mean? It means taking care of Mother Nature through our daily actions. Mother Nature has given us so much and now it is time for us to be aware and active in creating a reciprocal relationship.
Each newsletter seeks to address opportunities in daily life to invite a connection to the Earth. mothering Mother® believes that food is an integral and ongoing way to nurture the Mother Nature relationship. We eat 2-3 times a day. Eating whole foods for a healthy body, and a calm mind, will also nurture the Earth. We are intricately connected with the Mother.
Use your cotton mothering Mother® bags as ongoing reminders of this evolving relationship. Less plastic is better for you and the Earth. Eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds are better for you, and the Earth. Allow the mothering of Mother and the nurturing of Nature to be your daily offering of thanks.
Namaste Sydney
Lent & VB6
Frank Jaklitsch
Lawyer, Runner, Food Experimenter
I couldn’t think of an inspiring sacrifice for Lent this year, until I happened upon an Outside magazine article about a lifestyle called “VB6”. It is short for “Vegan Before 6”, and it’s the title of an upcoming book by a famed food critic, Mark Bittman. The program is as simple as it sounds. Just eat vegan at breakfast and lunch, as well as snacks during the day, and then eat whatever you want (emphasis on “whatever”) for dinner after 6 pm. For those who are not sure, vegan really means no animal products (emphasis on “no”), including any meat, fish, dairy or eggs, and even honey – I couldn’t believe that last one, either. I finished the article an hour before the start of Fat Tuesday, and I decided right then I would try VB6 for Lent. No deliberations necessary. After all, it was only for 40 days, and it wouldn’t affect my dinner plans, so why not?
I have never been a vegan before, or even a vegetarian. My original motivation was to do something different for myself, and of course to make a legitimate sacrifice for Lent. I have always liked a wide variety of foods so I was a nervous this would quickly become a seven week sentence of the same few lunches that were safe (e.g., McDonald’s French fries, bean burritos (hold the cheese), cucumber sushi rolls, and garden salads with vinaigrette dressing – I was never much of a brown bagger.) Breakfast I could deal with, but I expected that most afternoons I would feel less than satiated, with mild hunger pangs setting in around 3pm, and perhaps some lightheadedness from the assured decrease in protein intake. Mentally, I worked in several weekday afternoons where VB6 would be abandoned for the “greater good” (read: my job).
What actually happened is that by day 5 or so, those expectations became flat out ridiculous. The biggest surprise is that I felt much less hungry during the day. Hmmm, less hungry without meat or dairy or eggs? I felt more alert actually, and I was not missing out on much protein at all. The 11:45am “it’s early but I’ve got to eat something” quickly became the “wow, its 2:00pm and I haven’t grabbed lunch yet.” And when I got home from work, I unconsciously stopped my terrible habit of consuming assorted snacks in the hour before dinner – because I wasn’t hungry. I’m not a doctor but I suspect that my blood sugar was much more consistent on this new plan. Vegan food generally is a better source of fiber (compared with animal products, which have none), and I suspect this was an important factor as well.
The second biggest surprise for me, is that I started losing weight. This wasn’t an initial goal of the VB6 ‘sacrifice’ and this quickly got me energized about the program. Suddenly I was losing roughly 2lbs a week, without counting a single calorie, and fitting into some old pants again. I lost at least 8lbs, which is 5% of my body weight. Honestly, I have plateaued in the last couple of weeks, but I’m very optimistic that with just a minimum amount of effort here or there (like counting a calorie, or eating a vegan dinner), I may get even thinner. I should have realized this might happen – try and google “overweight vegan,” and see if you get any results. The conventional wisdom is that vegans are generally thinner than the average population, and after a few weeks just following VB6, it’s easy to see why.
So what vegan foods did I eat for the last 7 weeks? In a sentence, all that stuff I’ve probably walked past 100 times in the supermarket. It takes a tiny amount of effort to scan shelves or read labels, but there all kinds of great vegan products out there. For breakfast, I sometimes combine almond yogurt or walnuts or almond butter along with my oatmeal in the morning (they even taste pretty good in the same bowl). For lunch, I discovered fennel and baby bok choy and snap peas in the produce aisle (literally – I had never noticed these before), and most days I just eat them raw. I’ve also made my own barley, farro, wild rice and buckwheat for the first time ever (the real stuff, not the high salt preparations), and sometimes I’ll mix them with beans or sauce (think Indian, Mexican, etc.). From the freezer section, black bean burgers are really good, as are some imitation ‘meats’ using textured vegetable protein. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to almost anything by Amy’s, Daiya brand ‘cheese’ (tastier than some real ones) and Speculoos (better than peanut butter, and I’ll never understand how 20th century America missed this). And this is just a start. I started bringing my lunch to work way more often, although for a break, the lunch counter at the local health food store is a good option, too.
Lent ended, but I’m sticking with VB6 for the long haul. I have seriously considered going with just the “V”, but if I only keep one non-vegan type of food, it will probably be fish (after all, it’s a reliable source of Vitamin B12). I won’t pretend to be extremely principled about animal rights or the environment, although I do care about my blood pressure, and I am forever trying to lower my running times (it helps a lot to be thin). I did find an article on the internet, pondering whether the creator of VB6 was doing veganism more harm than good – to paraphrase (loosely), the author turned a principled movement (that wasn’t about health) into a cafeteria-style short-term fad that used a perceived inferior, low protein diet to achieve a specific personal health goal. I will preemptively ask anyone who feels that same frustration toward me to please give me a break, and to spew such vitriol at those 8lbs of me that no longer exist!
My dog, Bandit, did not try VB6 with me, although he does love peanut butter!
3 Bean Salad
This salad is unique in its origin – coming from your own kitchen! It is so tasty and satisfying! This salad fits right in with Frank’s VB6 program. Bean salad is wonderful for lunch, and it can be the salad dressing/topping on your salad. There is enough flavor and goodness in it to give you some protein and some slow burning carbohydrates, with some great fiber to keep your system moving!
Simple eating!
3 Bean Salad
2 cups cooked kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped parsley
1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 apple cider vinegar
2 T maple syrup
Salt, pepper
Combine all of the ingredients for the salad in a bowl. Combine all of the ingredients for the dressing in a jar. Emulsify the dressing ingredients together (shake or use a small whisk), taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Pour the dressing over the beans and vegetables, mix thoroughly and then refrigerator for 4-12 hours. The flavor of the dressing penetrates into the beans and the herbs develop greater flavor with time.
Serve along with the Alternative Grain Tabouli Salad for a complete protein complement. Serve over green salad as the dressing.
As I sit in a bookstore in New York City, waiting for Michael Pollan to speak about his new book, Cooked, I am extra inspired to write words in this newsletter, words that I can only hope will help all of us to further our connection with our food, our bodies and our environment. Frank has written in the above article about his experience of 40 days of VB6. Change is possible, in bite size pieces that we are ready to accomodate, fueled by desire and commitment.
In his talk, Pollan said that he believes that the most important thing about our diet is recognizing who is cooking our food – a human or a corporation. Cooking is a key to health and those who cook their own food have a better diet. It is the willingness of people to cook that is the key item here. Our culture spends less time cooking than we spend watching cooking shows! How interesting! Pollan feels that we are obsessed with cooking because it elicits fond memories of watching our mum, our grandma, cooking, and, together with the smells, elicit memories of love.
Well, even Pollan says that the kitchen today cannot look like the kitchen of our mothers’ and grandmothers’ days. Men and children need to, and in many cases, want to be in the kitchen.
Adding to this, I would say that eating is essential to all of us, and preparing the food is sharing in the most basic aspect of our being – our own survival! Whether it is vegan, or vegetarian, or flexitarian, or pescetarian, or omnivore, let it be a reflection of your creation and consciousness. Countries that put the most time into cooking at home have the lowest obesity rates. Restaurants and corporations have one main goal when it comes to your food – that you like it enough to come back again. To achieve that end additives and calories are used to extents that we the consumer do not know.
Although I can give a full nutritional account of the disadvantage of VB6, I am going to hold off. Mark Bittman with his focus on gradual change is creating a platform that is reasonable and useable for those looking to shift. Veganism and vegetarianism are on the rise, and we are becoming more informed and discerning “consumers”.
“May food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” (Hippocrates)
